


Fortune cookie

by zipporah



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blood and Injury, M/M, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:20:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23757511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zipporah/pseuds/zipporah
Summary: As a member of a modern criminal organization, Hidan seems to be able to make his way out on a couple of missions. As a witness, Kakuzu, Hidan's partner and an experienced member, found it unbelievably stupid yet lucky in a weird way. On one mission, the duo got lost on their way because Hidan did some stupid thing again. Will the curse of Hidan cost them their lives, or will it bring fortune?
Relationships: Hidan & Kakuzu (Naruto), Hidan/Kakuzu (Naruto)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I'm a non-English writer. My knowledge on Naruto is limited to fandom wiki and animation clips on the immortal duo.  
> This work is translated from my work [幸运饼](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23560348/chapters/56521168) originally written in Chinese.  
> I'm using DeepL to translate Chinese to English. I might consider revise and translate the work again when it's done.

This is not a confession. These are the observations I have made over the past few weeks, out of professional habits, and some of the places mentioned therein may still have remaining pieces of evidence that support the authenticity of my journal. That said, none of these really matters. This journal serves its purpose if anyone, could ask this question after reading: What might lie underneath my peaceful daily life?

Akatsuki, the organization I am affiliated with, has been operating locally for many years, involving businesses such as catering, real estate, and entertainment. Since the beginning of the new century, competition is increasingly fierce and gang violence is more prevalent. Two weeks ago, one of the organization's clients, a downtown dance club, again failed to submit its accounts receivable on time. In light of the client's recent and repeated overdue payments, Akatsuki appointed me and my partner to negotiate with the client face to face.

The dance club only open at night. We drove in at 21:00 and it was already packed with people.

"It's noisy." My partner grumbled, jumped out of the car, swung in with his bag, and I followed behind. It is necessary to introduce my partner, who I do not think can be simply described as "stupid" or "impulsive" - although these are my first impression as well. The stereotype is actually derived from the fact that young men are going through a critical time of brain development, and what's more important is that they still have enough time to try out new things, including making up for their stupidity .

Having gotten to know my partner better, I think there is something more unusual about him - similar to those kind of artists kissed by the god, he is most likely favoured by some dark lord. At first I thought it was superstition, but over time I was convinced that no other foolish and impulsive young man could do the same thing and reach even one percent of his achievements. Just as a cursed man walked in the eye of a storm, he brought grave danger and misfortune to others, while himself always managed to walk out of it. For example, Akatsuki negotiated with other syndicates late last year regarding redrawing the boundaries of each others territory, which undoubtedly needs to be pushed forward with caution. In the end of the day no one wants to shed unnecessary blood and pay unwanted price. My partner volunteered to deal with one of certain groups, the negotiation went unexpectedly well, almost made me impressed, until the beginning of this year, shocked by the rapid decline of that syndicate, in the organization's questioning, my partner told us what actually happened. It turns out that he relied on his youth and beauty to approach the second in charge of that organization, putting some good words into the ear, gaining some benefits for Akatsuki. Upon finishing the task, he immediately cut himself out of the relationship. It wasn't a surprise that the other guy didn't want things to end this way, therefore threatened my partner to undo the breakup and even began stalking. My partner, came up with a brilliant idea out of nowhere, taking his chance and pretended to be dead, but the unlucky guy, still cares about my partner, fell for such an obvious trick and committed suicide for love. My partner panicked when he found out what was going on, and came up with an even better idea. This time he drew a circle surrounding that pathetic fellow with the blood of the dead, placing candles around, and then slipped away. The incident was later closed by the police with the "suicide of a cultist", and the organization dwindled as a result of the death of key cadres. It has come to this point that revealing the truth will only make Akatsuki an enemy among its peers, and that will be the end of it. Frankly speaking, I suspect Akatsuki caught a fancy of my partner's talent, which comes as a disguise of the curse he carries.


	2. Two weeks ago

The dance club was supposed to be a breeze, just one person to distract security guards, another to say hello to the man in charge, have a drink together, and then tie him up and throw him in the trunk of the car, but apparently my partner didn't plan it that way, in fact, he probably didn't plan for anything.

"Do it!" He gave me a wink and drilled his way into the crowd.

I stood in a corner of the dance floor and watched in silence, no one noticing my presence. The club was the domain of young people. They waved their arms, some wiggling body like water snakes. Even though of similar age, my partner stood out as a ghost fire in the forest when he attempted to blended in, walking in a bouncy way, obviously excited about something.

A couple minutes later a smell of smoke came from the back of the ballroom, having caught the scent of crime, I hurried to pull on my mask. As the smell of smoke thickened, the crowd began to stir, stopped shaking their bodies, laser lights flickered on each puzzled face, and the only people who didn't get distracted was the DJ.

"Fire!" Suddenly someone let out a loud cry.

"Crackle!" "Pop!" The sound of bursting crisply penetrates the dance beat, and a golden tongue of fire creeps onto the dance floor, whirring and burning hotly.

The ballroom was in chaos, screaming and shouting, and a crowd of men and women rushed to the door, and in no time at all, ran away.

It was probably due to a lack of drills, or the fact that the fire had just been reported, that a few security guards didn't found the fire extinguisher until now. They tried to put off the fire, which spread into half of the ballroom, jumping up and down. The mischievous flame first crawled on the ground, then suddenly hit the curtains.

Seeing this, I walked into the office at the back of the ballroom. My partner triumphantly clutching a can of fire extinguishers, and across from him sat the club manager with a grim face.

Driving people out is just a warning. I got right to the point: If the dance club failed to make up the payment within a week, it will no longer be allowed to operate on the turf of Akatsuki. The manager is not a Mr. Soft either. He replied: With business not going on well, the dance club has suffer loss for quarters. There are no money to spare, but only his life can be taken.

Words of mouth are no proof. I had my partner go to the front desk to get the drink list and gave the manager an estimate of the day's bill in person. In accordance with the agreement, the profit and organization shall be divided by four to six, and the fee shall be paid in full at fifty-five thousand. But even after all this, the manager still refused my offer, calling me a "debt collector" and a "bloodsucker".

When things don't go well, I have a killing spell, an instinct that has landed me behind bars many times over, and in order to achieve an outcome that isn't so bad for both parties, I remind myself: Akatsuki needs a cut, and I get a commission. I keep reminding myself and put my hands where I did not have a weapon on me, focusing on the benefits that the fifty-five thousand could bring.

As if to express his displeasure with the long-standing mob rule, the man repeatedly rejected my offer, even though next to him stood my partner, who was even less patient than me and could have killed him with a single stroke of his hand.

"That's en...." As my partner was about to draw his knife, security guards rushed into the office and at the same time I loaded the gun.

"The fire has reached the stairs! We are running out of fire extinguishers!"

That's not lie, I could feel the temperature of the floor under my feet rising. I, the manager, and the security guard all looked at the fire extinguisher in my partner's hand, and then the guy ran out of the office like a dream.

I followed, drawn to that familiar, suffocating force - in the middle of the flames stood my partner, his face still possessed with the confidence of a demon - as he removed the safety pin and aimed the nozzle at the nearest flames in a professional pose that was far from the arsonist's.

Then nothing happened.

"Ahhhh?" He opened his mouth and spat out a short spell that was creepy in its understatement.

Yes, I was there, witnessing once again the dreadful power that followed my partner, the living, cursed spirit. The club didn't pile up too much flammable material, which is one of the reasons I let him set fire to it, but I should have known this, that how little chance did careful planning stands against the unfathomable dark power induced by my partner. The devil hardly followed the laws of our world.

The flames not only illuminated the outer wall of the dance club, but also spread to the restaurant next to it. People crowded the street to watch the evil fire, and the water spewed incessantly against the fire, raising a thick smoke.

"On the bright side, we're getting paid." My partner threw away the expired fire extinguisher in his hand - he probably sneaked it out from Akatsuki at last meeting, "the insurance company will cover it."

I nodded and made a phone call. "The insurance company will look into it, and to make sure we get the money, could you please go to the police station for a week first?"

"You...." He gave me an indignant glare and grumbled in self-pity, "You're going to leave me behind? Go back and get your own reward. I'll take all the blame? It hurts when a cop hits you! They also use electric batons! How can I sleep alone in prison?" 

"I'll pick you up in a week." I grabbed him by the arm like a vigilante capturing a suspect. I reckon it would be wise to get rid of my partner, sooner or later his curse will spread and infect me. After the police car arrived at the scene of the accident, I handed him over to the police.

Little did I know at the time that this would be the last time we would accomplish Akatsuki mission.


	3. One week ago I.

It's a pity that people don't think about money until they're in an emergency. I hope my partner understands this and is more motivated to pay off my loan.

A week after the dance club fire, as promised, I went to the police station. The time spent in custody forced my partner to reflect on his guilt, which also allowed me to step in as my partner's lawyer, negotiating with the judge for a lower bail - certainly it's not up to Akatsuki to give an endorsement, it was my money. Who else would be responsible for failing to keep an eye on my partner?

I took this fellow back to our place. He was not injured, but seemed to be troubled by something happened in his confinement, and I guessed it's nothing more than that the food was not so good, or that he could not get used to the bed there; in any case, he was not in a mood for chatting, not even interested in sharing anecdotes he encountered during custody, and his head was drowsy all along the way. Even I could not help worrying about his mental state.

In retrospect, it was just this guy trying to get my sympathy. He wasn't stupid, on the contrary, he was perfectly capable of using his intellect at just the right time to get what he needed, like food, information, like a temporary resting place, like physical enjoyment. It's certainly not fair to say that, I've never spent so much time and energy on my former partners, and when I started doing it, it was bound to be worth it.

It's funny, as I write this, I'm forgetting the temporary peace and quiet I gained by handing him over to the police, when I could have used the week to serve Akatsuki more efficiently, overseeing projects, reviewing finances... As a result, I chose to clean our house, fix my partner's broken items, and by the time I was done with that I realized it was already the weekend, and it was horrible, how housework is killing us.

Anyway, my partner ate and slept well, and the next day he was back to his old self, like an ordinary punk who put on his clothes and dragged me out into the sun to "replenish the calcium that was missing in the guardhouse". The world is no different from a large amusement park full of attractions for a young man like him, who is eager to try anything, even to commit a crime, while a man like me, who has been wandering underground for years, is always walking on a high rope: in broad daylight, two villains wandering the streets, one with his chest bare and a beautiful neck, the other wrapped up as tightly as if he were suffering from a cold, only eyes visible, and if I were a patrol officer, I would no doubt stop these two men and inspect them.

Such wandering lasted for half a day. Upon learning that my partner had regained his freedom, Akatsuki immediately called for a meeting the following day. The dance club refused to pay for the protection, earned itself a forced closure and a warning to their successors. However it is still considered a bad omen that cannot be ignored - a growing number of businesses are joining hands to boycott syndicates, the era of making a living by collecting protection fee is over, all criminal groups will need to think about it and consider expanding business into new territories.

Cash lying around is dead money after all, regarding this, Akatsuki shift its interest towards property development. A week ago, my partner and I were given a new assignment to go to a seaside village to evacuate resisting environmental groups in order to keep the project on track. No one could have predicted the bizarre adventure we would encounter on this land, the antecedents and consequences of which seem so unreliable as I am writing them down. I still feel like waking up from a nightmare, fresh in memory yet unable to acknowledge that any of these actually has happened.

Our plan that day was simple: we take the toolbox, put a set of water hose in the car. We simply need to connect it to the fire hydrant at the development site and open the valve. Water will chase after the protestors until they are completely driven out the development site. There's no need to talk. Simple, straightforward, and quick. In retrospect, it would have been an easy errand, but I made the mistake of leaving it to my partner to drive from the start.

Access to the seaside village was via a hidden boulevard, my partner had one hand on the steering wheel and the car was going fast, he was chatting away as usual.

"Those people who are protesting. I actually don't hate them."

I think it's rare that he has always looked down on atheists.

"We are all men of faith," he glanced at me and said, "I believe in religion, you believe in money, and these people believe in nature. Although we look down on each other, it doesn't make much difference."

"Not even close." I nearly burst out laughing, "Money can get people into religion. It would be more convincing if your teaching could make money."

"No no no it's prejudice!" My partner was eager to retort: "That's blasphemy -"

"Hidan!"

Before the words fell, I only heard "Bang!" With a loud bang, we bounced up in our seats-

A deer slammed into the front bumper, flew up again, shattered the windshield, and was finally thrown to the curb in a bloody mess.


	4. One week ago II.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hidan hit and killed the deer, which triggered a chain of consequences. Kakuzu was involved unwillingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I watched some hidan/kakuzu team moveset on youtube from Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninjia and I was in tears laughing. Hidan initiated Jashin Ritual, at the same time Kakuzu jumped to air, who then came up with the memory of the duo on their way to accomplish mission, with Kakuzu commenting "Looks like you are the only one who can be my partner". End of memory, Kakuzu started firing water/fire/wind towards Hidan. The latter bathed in this attack, eyes rolled over, saying "It feels good", and then the enemy get beaten. Hidan then got up from the ground without any hurt and play face behind Kakuzu.
> 
> Another moveset is where Kakuzu lets out water/fire/wind/earth from his body, and then Hidan hop on the flying "wind", while the other three take cover around and run towards the enemy. Somehow it reminds me of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

"Holy shit!" My partner exclaimed and jumped out of the car as if running away.

The front of the car was hit by the deer in a terrible way, dented a large area, I estimated the repair costs, so angry that lungs are about to explode, was about to say something, but saw my partner ran to the side crouched in front of the deer to measure. Upon seeing this, I raised my leg and kicked up a stone to hit him on the ass.

"Would you like some smoked deer meat?" The guy turned his head and proposed as if he's guilty about what he has done.

"Would you like a fist in the eye?" I glared. "Leave it alone and hurry up!"

"It'll be ready in a minute." He lowered his head again, pulled the long knife from his arms, looked around for a moment, gave the poor dying creature a final hit, then tugged at the antlers and dragged the animal's carcass into the woods by the road.

I started the car, wanting to leave my partner behind and get on the road. I am still an hour away from the seaside village, and maybe if I hit the road now, I'll be home before the sunset. I slanted my eyes in the rearview mirror again, and there were branches shaking in the woods next to me. My stupid partner must have been struggling to dismember the creature so it could be stuffed into the trunk of the car. If I leave him alone, he's likely to try set up a fire for a roast before hitching a ride with someone else, and as far as I know, wild animals tends to harbor a lot of parasites.

"Kakuzu!" The guy's shout suddenly came from the woods.

The second mistake I made that day was giving in and offer to help my partner, which dragged me deeper and deeper into the spell he had unleashed.

After rattling off a few branches, I found my partner, who wasn't alone - a dozen of brown-skinned, Aboriginal-dressed guys with shotguns aimed at my blood-stained partner, and thanks to him, I was now being targeted too.

"You have killed our mountain god." There was a stalemate for a moment, and the chief got off his horse and spoke. There was only one culprit, and just because it was my partner, I was also involved.

"Don't take your word for it." I don't buy it, "It's your mountain god who come running down the road."

The leader, who did not intend to speak to me much, like a silent chief, scoured the two of us, put a sack over our head, tied our hands to the rope, and pushed and shoved us deeper into the woods.

"What are these savages trying to do to us?" I heard my partner ask me through the sack, his steps were strong, rustling and rhythmic on the falling leaves.

"What do you say, evil cult?" I asked him rhetorically, "What are you going to do when someone blasphemes your god?"

He fell silent. I hope he is repenting, although it is not helpful at the moment.

We were hauled along for about ten or so minutes when the army stopped, a few whispered words of aboriginal dialect came, and then some of them mounted their horses and left us and headed elsewhere. After a while, we took off our hoods and a log warehouse appeared before us, standing alone. As far as the eye could see, there are only birch trees, some just growing leaves, others still bare.

The leader apparently left already, only leaving two of his men to deal with us, the smaller man opening the lock on the warehouse door, while another lanky fellow, slightly shorter than me, took charge of throwing us in.

"Hey! What are you doing?" My partner rolled to the door and yelled.

"You take away our land, you drive us away, you kill our mountain god." The tall man spoke a generic language that wasn't fluent. "Now, you guys pay it back."

He kicked my partner back, closed the door and locked it.

"Fuck!" My partner cursed, rolled over and pounced a few times out of my sight. Only one of the small, palm-sized windows in the warehouse let in a few rays of light, and I rolled over to sit up and move into the light.

"Can you give me a hand?" My partner pleaded to me.

"Get your ass over here!" I didn't say it in a good mood, and then he rolled up next to me as fast as he could.

"I think these natives are human traffickers." He took a break and began to analyze suspiciously. "Didn't kill us, must have been trying to sell us for a good price, only that makes sense."

"Agree, and disagree." I lifted my bound hands, removed my hood, fumbled through the trap to find a razor blade, and slowly cut the knot in my partner's hand, "Your organs are worth more than you as a living person. There is no stock in this warehouse, so it's possibly that this place is used specifically to hold captured people."

After he is released, he helped untied me. "We need a plan." I told him, "Do you have anything that works?"

He searched all over his trench coat, flipped each pocket out and looked, and finally seemed to find something.

"These are from the lunch we had last time. Didn't expect that, did you?" He handed me a fortune cookie.

Of course I wanted to beat him up, but the situation forced me to accept it. He searched up and down again and found nothing, and right now, the only tool available to us was the blade I had.

"This shitty house can't lock me in!" He slammed into the door with a sprint, quickly exhausted after a dozen rounds of such repetition, and the door remained untouched.

He still not give up on looking for a breakthrough in the ground to dig, and wanted to open a tunnel like a rabbit to escape, but as a result of the half-day digging did not even scrape a layer of ground, but broke his fingers, fresh blood layered on the already dried out black deer blood, made him dirty and miserable.

"It hurts..." At the end he flung his hand and fell back down, giving up on the hole. It was getting dark outside and it was getting cold and dark in the warehouse, and I walked over to my partner and sat down next to him, his figure getting vague as light dimmed out.

I pulled him to sit up, rubbed his fingers clean in darkness, and explained what's on my mind:

We need to know the time. He didn't get a response to his earlier slam, so we knew there was no guard outside. If these natives are still contacting organ buyers, that will ensure we don't die, so the immediate question is, what time will someone come? Just knowing that makes the next step a lot easier.

"There's nothing we can't do." He boasted, as always.

The night in the wilderness soon fell, and the sound of some animals running by came from outside the warehouse. My partner chanted words from his mouth and began his daily prayer, but the room was too cold, in shivering his tongue got frozen when he was halfway through, and we had to hug each other to keep warm. After a while he felt better, rested his head on my shoulder and continued to pray, the sound made me drowsy, but the breath he exhaled teased me from falling asleep. I guess it was these spells, chanting in my ears day and night, that set me apart from the common man and made me somewhat immune to his eerie powers, yet in the end I was not spared, trapped in such a predicament.

And so we endured the night, taking turns replenishing our sleep and barely making it through the first night.


	5. One week ago III.

As I expected, the next day someone brought food not long after the dawn. The tray was slid in under the door. My partner lying on his stomach, cursed at the door, and then put his ear on the ground for a moment. I was holding up the blade at the window and marked the position of the shadow.

After sound vanished in distance, I asked him how many people came.

"Only one." He drank half of the water and then used his fingers to divide food on the plate into half. "But it's that tall guy."

"Not bad." I said, "Mission accomplished for the day. Let's double check the time tomorrow."

"And?"

"And then I need your blood."

He didn't react as vigorously as I imagined, neither did he ask questions like "Why my blood and not yours?" Instead he simply added, with some excitement: "How much?"

"A lot." I said.

"Don't you dare kill me!" He laughed out loud as if amused, and that means he approved of it.

Somehow this reminded me of a proverb: Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.

These native people didn't seem to have heard back from their organ buyer. By the third day, there was still only tall men to bring us food. There wasn't much to do during the day, time flowed unusually slowly, my partner conducted his daily prayers as usual, neither getting longer nor shorter, and I would take a nap between his two prayers. I didn't sleep tight on that night. After awakened by the wolf howling outside, I waited for the night to pass slowly with my eyes open, imagining what we would do in another parallel universe where we have accomplished the mission. I woke up my partner from my arms when the sky showed some signs of dawn, giving him a heads up of what will happen next. I hold up the blade at the window again and watched the shadows until they overlapped with the scale - the meal delivery was coming. I had my partner lying in the middle of the warehouse, ripped off a piece of fabric from my outerwear, tied it up tightly around his fair upper arm. Soon his veins became visible under the skin. Given the lack of sanitizing condition, I simply clean the blade with the water that was sent to us. It's supposed to be fairly easy to cut through the skin, considering that I have cut people open quite a few times.

"Oops, you're sweating!" The blood flowed out smoothly. My partner stretched his fingers, taunting me.

"Don't pass out, it'll be over soon." I wiped my forehead, monitoring the speed of blood flow for a while, and moved to a corner where the light could not shine, ambushed.

The blood gurgled towards the door, pooling into a small puddle at the entrance, the red liquid whirling and spreading towards the gap. It didn't take long before the blood rushed pass the door and headed out. Part of my partner already broke free from this warehouse.

The food delivery didn't keep us waiting for too long. Soon footsteps came from outside. Today there are two people.

My partner lay motionless, and though he had been born fair, to my knowledge it's the fist time he looks as pale as a real dead man, and it made me restless.

There was a quarrel outside the door, perhaps one person trying to open the door, and the other not allowing it.

My partner remained still on the ground.

Somewhat I started to regret picking the current hiding spot, from where I couldn't see his eyes.

The door suddenly slammed open.

The short guy ran quickly to my partner's side, probing for breath.

The tall guy stepped in slowly with rifle in hand, looking for my trace.

I slit his throat the moment he pulled the trigger, blood splattered everywhere.

The smaller man screamed and lunged at me. The next second his slender neck was strangled by a red arm.

I snatched the blade out before his hand could reach the knife on his belt, stabbed it into his chest. His skinny body struggled a few times, then quickly fell sideways, revealing my partner stood behind, who now is no different from a living dead.

"It's dizzy." He wobbled and fell straight backwards. I rushed up to hold him, tearing the sleeve off my coat and pressing it on top of the wound, where the blood was still seeping out. After a simple bundling I let him lie down for a while. The sound of the gunshot just now may have alerted the enemy. This was not a place to stay for long. I took the weapons and water bottles from the two bodies, carried my partner and left the warehouse.

"Oi," grunted my partner breathlessly just a few steps out, half his body hanging over my shoulder, two legs faking a floppy stride, "Aren't you going to finish these savages for good?"

I've heard that people get abnormally excited when they lose part of their blood, but that obviously didn't apply to my partner, who just didn't have enough blood to feed his brain cells.

"If anyone catches up, you can try." I handed him the short knife the smaller man had just used, and he reached for it, only to catch it empty and the knife fell to the ground.

"Hang on a little longer and then you can eat something." I picked up the knife and double checked his wounded arm. The blood flowing more slowly but still not completely stopped, the binding cloth was mostly soaked, so I used my coat to stabilize his arm in a higher position to prevent forming drips of blood, which would tell our whereabouts.

Now it was dawn already and the sun was shining into the wilderness, casting more liveliness into it. I headed downwind towards the more dense part of the woods, and for the time being there was no sign of people or animals trailing after us. A fallen tree blocked the way. I put down my partner so he could sit against the trunk. I changed his soaked binding cloth. The wound was still bad, there was no clean water to rinse it out. There probably will be some plants in the wild that may helped the wound heal, but I didn't want to take any chances. This left me no choice but to tie up another ragged cloth to his arm. He didn't seem to be worried at all, pulling his own piece of fortune cookie out of his pocket and breaking it in half, feeding some of the fallen pieces into my mouth as he ate.

"A beautiful, intelligent, loving person will come into your life." He reads the "prophecy" note in the cookie and puffs out a laugh.

"This stupid dessert has always been a hindsight." I said, and he laughed even harder.

After the break my partner seemed to regain some energy and could walk on his own, so we decided to downgrade the priority of running away from the natives, heading towards the main road instead.


	6. Some days ago, yesterday, and today I.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakuzu and Hidan spent a night in the wilderness.

We got lost.

Of course there are a couple ways to navigate through the wilderness during the day: observing the movement of the sun; marking shadow of a straight stick as a reference for east-west; the southward side of the trees usually have thick branches and leaves; it's more common to find moss on the north side of the rocks.... Using these techniques, we were able to make adjustment along the way, but strangely, even the main road was on the west side of the forest, we never managed to reach it.

I didn't anticipate this would ever happen to someone experienced in the outdoors, but after walking all day and not yet see the edge of the woods, even I had to admit that my long-tested sense of direction failed to work. My partner followed me honestly, though he complained a lot, and in his opinion, it was the spirit of the mountain god that was playing a trick, and in order to confront it, he begged his Supreme Lord to "expel the false gods by divine power" during his morning prayer.

As the sunlight cooling down, camping in the woods became the only option. Walking all day had drained up the remaining little strength my partner had, and he was horribly white. Suffering from his wounds, his had a distorted face and eyebrows knit in a frown. I let him rest against a tree and went to find some materials I could use to build a shelter. Before dark I set up the frame with branches and covered the top with leaves and bark. It would have been nice to start a fire, but we don't have proper tools. I padded the ground with more leaves and pine mulch so that we roughly had a place to sleep. The water I took from the natives is only enough for both of us up to two days. As to what happens after that, I have no clue at the moment.

"You know what? If you insist on not washing your hair, after certain days you will no longer need to wash your hair any more." My partner lay flat on the "bed" and said in a miserably voice, scratching his head with the good hand.

"What the hell is that?" His words made me feels tingly on scalp. "How are you feeling?"

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and said slowly:

"Not too bad, just feels like I'm dying."

"It's cold," he said.

I thought a snack would cheer him up a bit, so I took out the fortune cookie he gave me and tried to feed him, only to be rejected, so I had to eat it myself.

"Read it out to me." He demanded.

I pulled out the note and read: "Time is money."

"Poof!" He let out a short sneer. "What a cliché!"

I walked outside the shelter and looked up at the sky, a cloudless night with the North Star clearly visible, the heavenly coordinates no doubt validating my judgment - we were indeed marching in the right direction, but time was running out for my partner.

Back to the inside, I found him still lying, murmuring his bedtime prayer - something he had to postpone today because of the injury. While he was reciting, I examined his wounds again and wrap up with a new patch of cloth, and after that his voice began fading away - it was rare for him to fall asleep halfway through his prayer, hopefully he would not be punished by the God he worshiped.

I drank some water and buried another empty water bottle in the dirt, covered with a few leaves, to collect some overnight dew. Wildlife can be a threat, and my partner told me that he would rather starve to death than be eaten alive by wolves or bears or other animals. It was late at night, and there were rustlings in the silence, between the branches, on the ground, and in the unseen darkness. Vigilance and sleepiness alternately dominated me, blurring the lines between reality and void. Last moment I thought I was sitting awake, but the next moment I opened my eyes and it was almost the same wilderness as far as I could see - it wasn't exactly a still pattern, some outlines, bright or dark, changed imperceptibly when I wasn't paying attention.

I had no idea how many hours has passed, but all of a sudden I heard my partner's moan, a long, eerie sound, like an echo from a deep well.

"Help me......."

"Help me......."

His body glowed in the darkness like snow. I picked him up and noticed his body feels very light, as if all blood was extracted out.

"Help me......."

"Help me......."

Three holes began to appear on his face, deepened and darkened until they took up a large proportion of the face, and the sound came precisely from the hole where his mouth supposed to be.

I still struggled to save him, to blow air into his lungs, to warm him with my body, to speak to him, but life slipped out of his lifeless body like a gust of smoke, and I saw it, a dim sparkle floating into the woods.

His body gradually melted into the mud, peaceful and at peace. I buried him with every bit of strength I had. There are no grave goods I can find, only dead leaves and twigs as embellishments. The thought of him being left alone in the wilderness in this way grieves me greatly, and I, a fellow sinner, am neither able to show proper mercy following the conduct of his faith, nor to mourn him in a secular manner. In the end, like a man who burns himself with fire, he was revolted by the curse - a mysterious force unknown to the world that craves endless sacrifices, cuts open murderers, leads hunters to become prey, and asking the old to collect the bodies of the young.

Then the unbelievable happened. From where he was buried, a small mound rumbling, slowly arching higher and higher, like something was writhing underground. Before I had a chance to clear my mind from the grief, I saw a skeleton rising from the mound, limbs holding an ancient treasure chest. The sight was eerie and creepy and sent chills down my spine, but perhaps out of curiosity or greed in my nature, I couldn't help but reach out to the stale wooden box and open the lid.

The coins and antiques glowed wonderfully silvery in the moonlight, and as I thrust my hands into these treasures, the coins clattered and clanked between my fingers. I shuddered violently, for the excitement of money, and for some indescribable absurdity, had left me at a loss in intense sorrow and intense joy.

Finally, I felt under the treasure chest, a large thing with a strange shape, which I struggled to lift from the coins -

That's my partner's head.

For a moment I froze, perhaps because the night was too cold, or my strength had reached its end. The head retains the deceased's expression and a pretty face.

"Gotcha!"

The head suddenly opened its eyes.

The next moment I woke up with a sharp gasp - the sky in the east had just gone white.


	7. Some days ago, yesterday, and today II.

"You're up?" I was startled by a hand patting on my shoulder. I turned around and found the face in my dream came to life.

Seeing that I didn't say anything, my partner untied the binding cloth on his arm and revealed that the wound has scabbed. Although he still looks weak and pale due to the loss of blood and hunger, he is now a different person compared to that of last night's. Apparently his skill of faking the dying has reached a new level, and it definitely had fooled me. Then he suddenly thought of something else, anxiously pulled me up to a nearby tree, showed me a corner of the ground. I followed the direction of his pointing until I recognize what that was, a cold shiver ran down my spine -

A safe was buried in the ground, with a tip of it exposed.

This ordinary object overlapped with the chest in my nightmare, for a second I couldn't tell if it's real or imaginary. That head still clinging onto me even after I was awake.

Despite the fact that we were still in danger, my partner managed to find a branch to dig through the ground.

"Don't just standing there! Come and help me, don't you want to get rich?" He turned to me while spilling the dirt he had dug up all over the place.

"No time for that. Save your strength." I rejected his request, walking back to the shelter to dig out the bottle that was used to collect the dew. "Let's try to walk out alive, and then we'll talk about it."

But he didn't give up that fast, keep digging for another couple minutes or so, until the combination dial was entirety exposed above the ground. The safe was not rusted or corroded, indicating that it mustn't have been buried long. My partner put his ear to it and twirled the dial like a thief master.

I stood behind him, my heart beating faster than ever. Though the sun had risen over the horizon and brightened everything, this artifact from nowhere, a bait for the greedy, sent out slight "clack clack clack" with each spin by my partner, approaching me inch by inch. My sanity torn by the nightmare was shaken once again.

However our curiosity was not satiated after all. The safe was not something that can be easily broken by an amateur thief like my partner. He haphazardly tried a few more combinations of numbers and finally gave up, kicking the safe a few times. I was also able to take a break from the mysterious force that had seized my nerves.

After taking some water we continued west. My partner picked up a rock and marked the trunk along the way as if he was the one who cared more about the safe.

By the third day of getting lost, we ran out of water. Walking in increasingly heavy footsteps, we were driven merely by our instincts to the direction of the imaginary location where main road lied. From time to time I took a peek at the tree trunks we passed by, intimidated by the possibility to find marks carved by my partner. It's not the time for desperate yet, I thought, hearing a whisper from behind, my parted saluted his Lord as usual, and made a humble request for rain at the end of his prayer.

"Don't bother making marks." I told him, "I don't want to carry you again."

"I just want to know what's in there." He casually marked the tree next to him, "It's not bad to find some money in it. Even better if it's something unimaginable."

"Like a human head, for example." I took it off the top of my head.

"Oh! You disgust me!" He let out an exaggerated cry, "Please think on the bright side, ok? Let's say, what will be the first thing to do when you back home?"

"Undoubtably it will be debriefing to Akatsuki." I said.

"And?"

"Eat, bathe, sleep."

"Boring." He waved both arms in disagreement, "We can do better than that, like having...."

Suddenly we stopped our footsteps at the same time.

Unexpectedly, we were back to the main road.

It's possible, just as my partner said, everything that happened to us is the revenge from the mountain god. With strong will, and probably the favour of my partner's Lord, we managed to get out alive. Anyway, there was no more surprise on our way back, and by the time we walked to the nearest gas station the sun was already setting on the horizon. I went to the convenience store to borrow phone, contacted roadside assistance, and asked for two cup of free ice, then we sat outside on the steps and chewed on the ice while watching the cars coming and going.

Our damaged car will get repaired at a later date. When we got home we ate all the food we could find, washed the dirt and blood off, soaked our broken and swollen feet in hot water, and in between doing so I roughly estimated the cost resulting from our failed mission, while my partner flopped on the bed half-naked, completely forgot about the wound and pain.

After a short break, I made a couple calls to Akatsuki and, oddly enough, there was no answer to the phone. Out of professional prudence and responsibility, I decided to pay a night visit myself to explain our failure. My partner, although extremely dissatisfied, was finally persuaded by me to get dressed again and go along with me.

I must admit that at this point I was a bit of a fluke, thinking that by explaining what we had been through and why it had taken so many days, things would go back to the way they were and we could continue to work for Akatsuki and get paid. I would say this thought is quite prevalent in that most people long for a peaceful and stable life, always thinking that calamity won't fall on them, as a result, most of us don't have the enough sensitivity on the signs of the disasters. This is how the demons taking advantage of human weaknesses. In the case of my partner, although he is simple in nature, and his wicked thoughts are often just dark impulses, sometimes even appeared to be innocent, these are just the cover-up that took people off guard, unaware of the misfortune that followed. His existence constantly reminds me how deliberately the devil plays its game on earth.

We passed a few streets, walked through alleyways under night lights, entered a building, and went up the stairs - Akatsuki's gathering place was dark and empty. We turned on the lights and continued walking inside, where members used to come at night to exchange information and socialize, but now it was a mess, with tables and chairs stacked in one place, shards of glass strewn across the floor, filing cabinets opened, and a stack of papers stuck in a shredder next to them - no doubt Akatsuki was purged, from the remains of the spot, justice came so quickly this time that most members were caught off guard.

I found the landline behind an overturned desk, and the missed call indicator flashed - all dialled from me. The history message didn't have much useful information, so I deleted all the entries, left the place with my partner as soon as we could.

Whether leaders escaped or not, we had no way of knowing; some may end up behind bars, some may be at large. We don't know why Akatsuki was targeted, whether it was a backstabbing from a competitor, or whether it was leaked to the police from a mole. On the way back I sadly recollected everything: Was it a blessing in disguise from the moment my partner accidentally run over a deer? Or was it his arson in the dance club that triggered the fall of Akatsuki? And what role did I myself play in all this? Yes, I am the experienced one of two of us, but there are moments when I am just forced to follow fate's lead, and in almost every such moment, when I vaguely hear fate's mockery, my partner is always there, as if his foolishness is precisely prepared for this moment.... He was neither an ordinary idiot nor far from being the devil itself, in my opinion he was the prophet of calamity, whose presence subverted my perception of the world. I used to live by the common sense, cautiously and regularly live my life, the routine fell apart after I was introduced to my partner. Certainly I tried to maintain my old way of life, at least on the surface, but I was still irresistibly attracted to his momentum, to him, willing to dive into to every adventure with him. We are destined to fall into doomed abyss one day in the future, there is no doubt about it, fate has its mischievous moments, but outlaws will not always be able to dodge the bullet.

Before returning to our place, I suddenly realized that we had no home to go back. Justice will soon catch up on us, leaving no criminals at large, and other syndicates will take advantage of the opportunity to take revenge, just as how hyenas corner and drive out a lion without his pride.

"Everything is ready." After packing all the bags, my partner yelled with excitement, as if we were going away on a vacation. I locked the door and put the luggage into the trunk. Our car is as badly damaged as the day it hit the deer, with dried blood lingering on the crack of the windshield, and a deformed hood - we had to run at night before the car could be fixed - this time I was the one driving.

"You know what I was thinking?" My partner hopped onto the passenger seat and said, "How about we go back to that safe and try our luck? Things can't get worse anyway, right?"

Ominous feeling flooded me like a tidal wave. In his gaze, I could see the flames of madness dancing.

"So be it." I replied with an approving smile, started the car.

Fin.


End file.
